Buyers from across the globe are back on the Croisette, shopping lists at the ready. Screen picks through some of the hottest titles from the France, at various stages of production, that are available in the market.
Be For Films launches Belgian filmmaker Guillaume Senez’s A Missing Part, starring Romain Duris, about a taxi driver searching for his daughter in Tokyo. It also brings Koya Kamura’s Winter In Sokcho about a half-French, half-Korean woman’s quest for identity in a small seaside village.
Best Friend Forever brings Matthew Rankin’s surreal comedy Universal Language, which is premiering in Directors’ Fortnight, and a new promo reel for Jean-Baptiste Saurel’s kung-fu comedy Zenithal.
The Bureau Sales opens business on Vincent Munier’s nature-themed drama Whispers In The Woods and brings Annecy-bound animated anthology feature Animal Tales of Christmas Magic, told by six different directors.
Charades arrives with a massive slate that includes Julia Ducournau’s Alpha (co-sold with FilmNation), starring Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim, and Oscar-winning Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Nemes’ post-Second World War tale Orphan (with New Europe Film Sales), plus a new promo reel for Toei’s animated family feature Hypergalactic.
Coproduction Office is representing Lou Ye’s An Unfinished Film, which is showing in Special Screenings. It is the story of a crew who unite near Wuhan to resume shooting a film from a decade earlier, only to face strict Covid lockdowns.
Elle Driver has Venice Silver Lion-winning Greek director Alexandros Avranas’s Quiet Life about the mysterious children’s illness ‘resignation syndrome’, and brings first images for Sylvain Chomet’s animation The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol.
Les Films du Losange has several festival selections: Arnaud Desplechin’s Filmlovers!, Leos Carax’s It’s Not Me, Roberto Minervini’s The Damned, Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia and Patricia Mazuy’s Visiting Hours.
France Télévisions Distribution comes to the market with stop-motion animation The Songbirds’ Secret and Romuald Boulanger’s biopic Mansour about tennis player Mansour Bahrami.
Gaumont launches sales on Olivier Schneider’s thriller The Orphans, and Alban Lenoir and Franck Dubosc’s crime comedy How To Make A Killing, which stars Laure Calamy and Benoit Poelvoorde. It also has first images for Ken Scott’s familial comedy drama Once Upon My Mother.
Ginger & Fed has bittersweet family comedy Present Perfect, produced by Karé Productions for Warner Bros France with a starry local cast, and Million Dollar Madness produced by Curiosa Films and starring Christian Clavier and Kev Adams.
Goodfellas has three Competition titles: Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, Emanuel Parvu’s thriller Three Kilometers To The End Of The World and Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez (via The Veterans, with CAA Media Finance). Julien Colonna’s Le Royaume is in Un Certain Regard and Claude Barras’ Savages in Special Screenings.
Indie Sales launches French-Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s Marseille-set melodrama Across The Sea, which plays in Critics’ Week, and Laura Wandel’s In Adam’s Interestabout a mother and nurse grappling with a young boy suffering from malnutrition.
Kinology has Leïla Sy’s suspenseful survival thriller Hell In Paradise starring Nora Arnezeder and Maria Bello, and brings a sizzle reel and the script for family animal adventure Pets On A Train from TAT Studios.
Loco Films launches Mara Tamkovich’s Under The Grey Sky about two imprisoned Belarusian journalists, set to premiere at Tribeca; Sebastian Parra R’s Seed Of The Desert about two lovers in a dystopian desert trying to escape by smuggling gasoline; and Veit Helmer’s animal family adventure film Akiko: The Flying Monkey.
Luxbox launches Payal Kapadia’s Competition title All We Imagine As Light, about nurses in Mumbai who head off on a trip to a beach town, and Isabella Torre’s debut feature Basileia, an Italy-Sweden co-production about archaeologists searching for an ancient treasure who unleash mysterious and mythical creatures.
Memento International kicks off sales for Spanish director Jonas Trueba’s relationship comedy The Other Way Around, a Directors’ Fortnight premiere, and The Ugly Stepsister, a horror comedy twist on the classic Cinderella story from first-time Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt.
MPM Premium launches Hernan Rosselli’s Argentinian family crime drama Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and kicks off sales for Alejandro Pease’s Catholic-school drama Fine Young Men and Marie Rémond’s romantic comedy Vanishing Goats.
mk2 Films has 10 films premiering at the festival including Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio, Jia Zhangke’s Caught By The Tides, Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda and Noémie Merlant’s The Balconettes. It launches Kent Jones’ NYC poetry world-set Late Fame starring Sandra Hüller and Willem Dafoe, and Vladimir de Fontenay’s father-son nature thriller Sukkwan Island starring Swann Arlaud and Woody Norman.
Newen Connect has Julie Manoukian’s comedy The Green Gang, about modern-day feminist eco-activists, and Varante Soudjian’s boxing film Lucky Punch.
Other Angle brings Artus’ comedy drama A Little Something Extra, about a father-son duo fleeing the police who take refuge at a summer camp for young adults with disabilities, and action comedy The Gardener from director David Charhon starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michaël Youn.
Le Pacte kicks off sales on Stéphane Demoustier’s architecture drama The Great Arch starring Lars Mikkelsen and Francois Cluzet; prison-set dance drama Unchained from director Valerie Muller, which stars Roschdy Zem and Sandrine Kiberlain; and John Wax’s A Mother’s Special Love starring Audrey Lamy as the struggling single mother of an autistic boy.
The Party Film Sales launches the late Sophie Fillieres’ Directors’ Fortnight opener This Life Of Mine starring Agnes Jaoui, Icelandic director Runar Runarsson’s Un Certain Regard opener When The Light Breaks and Critics’ Week’s female empowerment tale The Brink Of Dreams.
Pulsar Content has Antoine Chevrollier’s debut coming-of-age friendship drama premiering at Critics’ Week Block Pass set in the moto cross world and Celine Sallette’s first feature Niki about artist Niki de Saint Phalle starring Charlotte Le Bon.
Pathé brings Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov. The Ballad (co-sold with Vision Distribution) and Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, both in Competition, plus starry literary adaptation The Count Of Monte Cristo, which plays Out of Competition.
Playtime starts sales on Guan Hu’s northwest China-set The Black Dog (UCR), Robert Guédiguian’s twist on Robin Hood Stealing Angel and Iraqi-Danish filmmaker Jahfar Muataz’s debut feature Crossing Lines, about a reformed criminal whose past resurfaces in Copenhagen’s underworld.
Pyramide International kicks off sales on a slew of festival films including Agathe Riedinger’s Competition title Wild Diamond and Jean-Marie and Arnaud Larrieu’s family drama Jim’s Story. It also launches sales on Cyprien Vial’s volcano drama Magma and Sophie Deraspe’s pastoral shepherd story Berger.
Reel Suspects market debuts two features from Poland: Justyna Mytnik’s Polish coming-of-age friendship drama Wet Monday, about a young girl surviving the trauma of sexual violence, and Patricia Ryczko’s dystopian-future immigration thriller Reset.
SBS International is selling David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds that stars Vincent Cassel as a grieving man who invents a controversial technology that allows the living to connect with their dead loved ones. WME is handling US rights.
SND kicks off sales for animation Asterix: The Kingdom Of Nubia penned by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere, and sets sail on See The Sea, Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud’s family comedy-drama starring Dany Boon and Audrey Fleurot.
Studiocanal’s line-up includes a pair of Competition titles: Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts starring Francois Civil and Adele Exarchopoulos, and Michel Hazanavicius’ Holocaust-themed animation The Most Precious Of Cargoes.
Studiocanal ex-Orange Studio brings Jessica Palud’s Maria Schneider biopic Being Maria starring Anamaria Vartolomei, and kicks off sales for All For One from Camera d’Or-winning Divines director Houda Benyamina.
Totem Films begins sales on Finnish filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen’s triptych of shorts Silent Trilogy, Mo Harawe’s Un Certain Regard title The Village Next To Paradise and Nastia Korkia’s A Short Summer, about a young girl grappling with tension in her grandparents’ relationship.
Urban Sales brings Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s India-set drama of forbidden romance The Shameless and Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord’s 3D-animated family adventure Into The Wonderwoods.
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